Couple go global with unusual wedding album

A NEWLYWED couple secretly took their wedding photos in the year before their big day – in stunning beauty spots around the world.

Niels and Agne Vollaard donned their full wedding outfits and posed in countries such as Iceland, Italy, Spain and the Seychelles.

They spent a year travelling the world to capture 21 breathtaking images – even using drones for some of them.

The couple arranged the trips and photos without telling family and friends.

And when they finally walked down the aisle in Edinburgh last month they did not have a photographer – because the snaps were already done.

Niels, 42, said: “My favourite photo is probably the one taken on the beach at sunrise in the Seychelles – that was definitely the nicest holiday, too. Most of the photos were taken very early in the morning, when it was very cold, so it was quite difficult for Agne.

“We had a three-day hike in the Dolomites, with all our wedding gear in our rucksacks, and we only managed to get one photo there.”

Niels and Agne, 36, met eight years ago at a climbing wall in the Capital – making them well-prepared for their photoshoot adventures.

Niels said: “We both enjoy climbing, and we wanted to get married at the top of the Inaccessible Pinnacle, the most challenging mountain top in the Isle of Skye.

“It’s an amazing location – but you have to confirm your wedding date at least 28 days in advance, and it would have been impossible to predict what the weather would be like.

“But then we thought, why do we need to take our wedding pictures on our actual wedding day?”

They began the jetsetting photoshoot in May 2016, after only three months of planning.

“We had been talking about getting married for a while, but I never really officially proposed – it was more like we had the shared idea of taking our wedding photos in different countries,” said Niels.

They took almost all of the photos themselves, using a drone to capture many of the shots.

But Niels, a lecturer in exercise physiology at Stirling University, said the year-long wedding photoshoot was not without its complications.

“For every picture we took the planning was quite substantial, and not all of the photos we were hoping to get worked out,” he said.

“We only managed to get one photo in the Dolomites, after a three-day hike because we got caught in a thunderstorm for about three hours.

He added: “Every photo has a story attached to it, as well as the stories about photos we didn’t manage to get, and that’s what makes the pictures so special.”

The couple were married in at A Registrars Office in the presence of two friends.

And Niels said they kept their wedding very casual – getting married in jeans.

He and his wife are keen to go travelling again soon – but joked there would not be any more wedding photos.

Among the list of 21 wedding photos taken by the couple, locations included Calton Hill, the Firth of Forth, the Pentland Hills, Isle of Harris, Isle of Skye and Mallorca.